1. Field of Endeavor
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for improving vision and more particularly to an adaptive ophthalmologic system.
2. State of Technology
U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,719 issued Jul. 7, 1998 to David R. Williams and Junzhong Liang, assigned to the University of Rochester, for a method and apparatus for improving vision and the resolution of retinal images provides the following state of technology information, “a point source produced on the retina of a living eye by a laser beam is reflected from the retina and received at a lenslet array of a Hartmann-Shack wavefront sensor such that each of the lenslets in the lenslet array forms an aerial image of the retinal point source on a CCD camera located adjacent to the lenslet array. The output signal from the CCD camera is acquired by a computer which processes the signal and produces a correction signal which may be used to control a compensating optical or wavefront compensation device such as a deformable mirror. It may also be used to fabricate a contact lens or intraocular lens, or to guide a surgical procedure to correct the aberrations of the eye. Any of these methods could correct aberrations beyond defocus and astigmatism, allowing improved vision and improved imaging of the inside of the eye.”
U.S. Pat. No. 6,338,559 issued Jan. 15, 2002 to David R. Williams, Geun-Young Yoon, and Antonio Guirao, assigned to the University of Rochester, for an apparatus and method for improving vision and retinal imaging provides the following state of technology information, “A method for improving the visual performance of a person involves correcting higher-order monochromatic aberrations in combination with the correction of chromatic aberration. Such correction results in a visual benefit greater than that realized by correcting only the higher-order monochromatic aberrations or the chromatic aberration alone. The higher-order monochromatic aberrations are corrected by introducing appropriate phase profiles to compensate for the wavefront aberrations of the eye. This compensation can be provided by contact lenses, IOLs, inlays and onlays having appropriate surface shapes or by corneal shaping achieved through refractive surgery or other techniques. Chromatic aberration can be corrected by spectral filtering or artificial apodization. An apodization filter is described that provides a non-uniform amplitude transmission across the pupil of the eye. Contact lenses or other ocular devices for correcting higher-order monochromatic aberrations may include an appropriate apodization filter for correcting chromatic aberration, or an external optical device for correcting chromatic aberration may be used in combination with a contact lens, etc. for correcting the higher-order monochromatic aberrations.”
International Patent Publication No. WO 02/30273 published Apr. 18, 2001 by the University of Rochester, inventors David R. Williams and Antonio Guirao, for determination of ocular refraction from wavefront aberration data provides the following state of technology information, “Ocular refraction is determined from wavefront aberration data, and an optimum customized correction is designed. The eye's wave aberration is measured (202) by using a detector such as a Shack-Hartmann detector (714). From the aberration, an image metric is calculated (214), and the second-order aberrations which optimize that metric are determined (218). From that optimization, the refractive correction (220) required for the eye is determined. The image metric is one of several metrics indicating the quality of the image on the retinal plane or a proxy for such a metric. The required refractive correction (220) can be used to form a lens or to control eye surgery. If it is possible to detect more aberrations than can be corrected, those aberrations are corrected which most affect vision, or for which the eye's error tolerance is lowest.”